Two men died for the faith after harsh
treatment and exhaustion in the mines of Sardinia. One had been pope for five years, the other an
antipope for 18. They died reconciled.

Pontian

Pontian was a Roman
who served as pope from 230 to 235. During his reign he held a synod which confirmed the
excommunication of the great theologian Origen in Alexandria. Pontian was banished to exile by the
Roman emperor in 235, and resigned so that a successor could be elected in Rome. He was sent to the
"unhealthy" island of Sardinia, where he died of harsh treatment in 235. With him was Hippolytus
(see below) with whom he was reconciled. The bodies of both martyrs were brought back to Rome and
buried with solemn rites as martyrs.

Hippolytus

As a presbyter in
Rome, Hippolytus (the name means "a horse turned loose") was at first "holier than the
Church." He censured the pope for not coming down hard enough on a certain heresy—calling him a
tool in the hands of one Callistus, a deacon—and coming close to advocating the opposite heresy
himself. When Callistus was elected pope, Hippolytus accused him of being too lenient with
penitents, and had himself elected antipope by a group of followers. He felt that the Church must be
composed of pure souls uncompromisingly separated from the world, and evidently thought that his
group fitted the description. He remained in schism through the reigns of three popes. In 235 he was
also banished to the island of Sardinia. Shortly before or after this event, he was reconciled to
the Church, and died with Pope Pontian in exile.

Hippolytus was a rigorist, a vehement and intransigent man
for whom even orthodox doctrine and practice were not purified enough. He is, nevertheless, the most
important theologian and prolific religious writer before the age of Constantine. His writings are
the fullest source of our knowledge of the Roman liturgy and the structure of the Church in the
second and third centuries. His works include many Scripture commentaries, polemics against heresies
and a history of the world. A marble statue, dating from the third century, representing the saint
sitting in a chair, was found in 1551. On one side is inscribed his table for computing the date of
Easter, on the other a list of how the system works out until the year 224. Pope John XXIII
installed the statue in the Vatican library.

Comment:Hippolytus was a strong defender
of orthodoxy, and admitted his excesses by his humble reconciliation. He was not a formal heretic,
but an overzealous disciplinarian. What he could not learn in his prime as a reformer and purist, he
learned in the pain and desolation of imprisonment. It was a fitting symbolic event that Pope
Pontian shared his martyrdom.

Quote:"Christ, like a skillful physician, understands the weakness of men. He
loves to teach the ignorant and the erring he turns again to his own true way. He is easily found by
those who live by faith; and to those of pure eye and holy heart, who desire to knock at the door,
he opens immediately. He does not disdain the barbarian, nor does he set the eunuch aside as no man.
He does not hate the female on account of the woman's act of disobedience in the beginning, nor does
he reject the male on account of the man's transgression. But he seeks all, and desires to save all,
wishing to make all the children of God, and calling all the saints unto one perfect man"
(Hippolytus, Treatise on Christ and Antichrist).

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